Thermal conductivity of selected cermet materials

Abstract

Cermets offer the benefits of both ceramics and metals. Due to the benefits associated with cermets, especially high temperature stability and thermal conductivity, there is renewed interest in their thermophysical properties. The present work describes thermal conductivity studies on selected cermets using laser flash technique in the temperature range 673-1373 K. This work describes the preparation and thermal conductivity measurement of urania-nickel cermets of composition 20 and 30 wt.% nickel by the solid-state reaction method. The thermal conductivity value is obtained as a product of the measured thermal diffusivity, estimated specific heat and room temperature density of these cermets. The theoretical value of the thermal conductivity is also computed for these cermets using different models for two-phase solid mixtures, such as parallel, series and Maxwell models. The calculated thermal conductivity, obtained using measured thermal diffusivity, of these cermets is compared with the theoretical values from the above models. Thermal conductivity integral values are also calculated and presented here.